Eternal Justification

Romans 8:30

      Without question there is a sense in which our justification by the grace of God is an eternal act. This is not just a logical inference drawn from the Scriptures. It is a doctrine plainly taught in the Word of God. In Romans 8:30 Paul is talking about the eternal purpose of God by which he rules all things in providence. His subject matter is not prophetic, but historic. In the purpose of God all his elect were justified from eternity in Christ.

     We were "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6) from everlasting. If we were accepted in him, we were considered righteous in him. If God looked upon us as righteous, he looked upon us as justified. The only righteousness we could have possessed was imputed righteousness.

     Justification is one of those "all spiritual blessings" with which God's elect were blessed in Christ before the world began (Eph. 1:3; II Tim. 1:9). The whole package of salvation was given to us in Christ in the covenant of grace before the foundation of the world. "We may say of all spiritual blessings in Christ what is said of Christ, that `his goings forth are from everlasting'" - (Thomas Goodwin).

     Christ became our Surety in the everlasting covenant (Heb. 7:22 ). As soon as one man becomes surety for another the other is freed from all obligation and responsibility. Even so, when Christ struck hands with the Father as our Surety, before the worlds were made God said concerning his elect, "Deliver them from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom!"

     The Lord Jesus Christ was, in the mind and purpose of God, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8). If the Father looked upon the Son as the Lamb slain, he looked upon him as the propitiation, atonement, and satisfaction for the sins of his people; and he looked upon us as redeemed and justified by the blood of the Lamb.

     Moreover, all the Old Testament believers were accepted of God and justified upon the basis of Christ's promise to fulfill all righteousness (Rom. 3:25 ; Heb. 9:15 ). If God justified them upon the basis of Christ's promise of satisfaction, why should anyone dispute the eternality of our justification upon grounds of that same promise? We were justified in the purpose of God from eternity!

Don Fortner